DOCSLIB.ORG

Sophocles' Ajax and the Greek Epic Cycle

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Sophocles' Ajax and the Greek Epic Cycle Eating from the Tables of Others: Sophocles’ Ajax and the Greek Epic Cycle1 Athenaeus in his Deipnosophistai remarks that “Sophocles took great pleasure in the Epic Cycle and composed whole dramas in which he followed the Cycle’s version of myths” (ἔχαιρε δὲ Σοφοκλῆς τῷ ἐπικῷ κύκλῳ, ὡς καὶ ὅλα δράματα ποιῆσαι κατακολουθῶν τῇ ἐν τούτῳ μυθοποιίᾳ, Deipnosophistai 277c).2 This statement is equally apposite for his Ajax Philoctetes, Oedipus (both Tyrannus and Coloneus) and Antigone. However, while examining in depth the plot and the construction of some of the characters in Sophoclean tragedy, one realizes that Sophocles, although indebted to the poets of the Epic Cycle for his plots, feasts at Homer’s table as well, reminding us of what Aeschylus said about his tragedies as being slices from Homer’s great dinner parties (τὸ τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ λαμπροῦ Αἰσχύλου, ὃς τὰς αὑτοῦ τραγῳδίας τεμάχη εἶναι ἔλεγεν τῶν Ὁμήρου μεγάλων δείπνων, Athenaeus Deipnosophistai 347e). The second point I would like to make refers to a methodological principle. I subscribe to the view that a playwright of fifth c. BCE Athens not only “feasts” at the tables of others but freely transforms and adapts his borrowings to the new ideology of his genre and the social and political circumstances of his time.3 In Sophocles’ time, there is the polis, with a value system that has evolved gradually but steadily, from the Homeric, through the archaic, down to the classical period. Moreover, Sophocles, as with all poets, had a particular style and personal preoccupations that characterize his work.4 1 I would like to thank the participants in the Greek Epic Cycle Conference, held in ancient Olympia on 9–10 July 2010, for their useful comments on the oral presentation of the present paper. In particular, I am grateful to Malcolm Davies and Nanno Marinatos for their perceptive comments and discussions on the subject. I am also thankful to my student Eustathia-Maria Athanassopoulou, whose essay on Ajax and his relationships to the gods in the Iliad and the Sophoclean tragedy made me consider, in the long fruitful discussions with her, this interesting aspect of Ajax’s story. 2 Davies begins his book on the Epic Cycle 1989:1 with reference to this passage from Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistai; I use his translation of the relevant passage. 3 The long debate on the political discourse of ancient Greek tragedy dates at least from the time of the French School (Jean-Pierre Vernant, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Nicole Loraux) that argued strongly for its political character. I shall refer only to a few seminal works on the issue. From recent years there should be noted the debate on this matter between Griffin 1994:73–94 and Seaford 2000:30–44. See also the important work by Pelling 1997 where his contribution is titled: “Conclusion: Tragedy as Evidence, Tragedy and Ideology” 213–235; also Pelling 2000; Meier 1993; Euben 1986; Carter 2007. From numerous articles I only include a short selection: Goldhill 2000, where there is relevant bibliography in notes 1, 3 and 5; Rhodes 2003; Pozzi 1991; Hesk 2007; Said 1998, especially 278–280. 4 Knox in his Heroic Temper (1964) explores a personal preference of Sophocles by drawing an integrated picture of the Sophoclean hero: lonely, isolated, asocial and intransigent, 1 In the present paper I shall try first to detect what Sophocles in his Ajax borrowed from where, and second, how he elaborated the old material to produce a play reflecting on the new ideological structures and the value system sustaining the polis. Ajax Ajax, the hero, is very brave; he is not the “best of the Achaeans”, but he is the second best after Achilles (ἀνδρῶν αὖ μέγ’ ἄριστος ἔην Τελαμώνιος Αἴας / ὄφρ’ Ἀχιλεὺς μήνιεν, Iliad 2.768–769).5 Symbolically, in the deployment of the Greek camp, he holds the left end while Achilles holds the right.6 And since Achilles eschews the battlefield for more than three quarters of the Homeric account of the Iliadic war (he returns to the battle in book 19 of the Iliad), it is Ajax who shoulders the burden of the defense of the Greek army; the Homeric formula for Ajax is ἕρκος Ἀχαιῶν, the bulwark of the Achaeans. And indeed, true to his Homeric characterization, he many times steadied the Greeks when their line was pressed by the advancing Trojans. Almost singlehandedly he tried to save the Greek ships from fire (book 15 of the Iliad). In book 17 of the Iliad, where there is a fierce struggle over the corpse of Patroclus, Ajax performs a great deed: he fights the rearguard action against the Trojans, allowing Menelaos and Meriones to bear the body to safety. Moving now to the Greek Epic Cycle, in the Aethiopis by Arctinus,7 where the death of Achilles is recounted, it is Ajax who obsessively attached to his/her goal. Whitman (1951) in the title of his book on Sophocles advocates a specific “heroic humanism” as the kernel of the Sophoclean drama; Winnington- Ingram 1980:312–313 detects a “heroism of human beings, which give the picture of a hero who is wronged in some ways and fights against his/her ‘enemies’ and a divinely sent- destiny”. Bowra 1944:376 suggests that the Sophoclean hero learns his mortal limitations and accepts them. 5 See also Iliad 18.279–280, 19 192–193, Odyssey 12.469–470, 12.550–551, 12.556–558, 24.17–18. Ajax in the Iliad performs the deeds that were normally the role of Achilles: he fights Hector in a duel (book 7), clashes with him twice in a generalized battle (books 14, 15), and, together with the other Ajax (Oileus), fights off Hector from the walls of the Greek camp in book 12; he also retrieves the body of the dead Patroclus (book 17). In Sophocles, Ajax claims that if Achilles were alive he would have given him his arms (Ajax 442–444). For Ajax as second best to Achilles see Nagy 1999:31–32. 6 Iliad 8.225–226. 7 In five books by Arctinus of Miletus. There is some controversy regarding the dating of the epics of the Cycle. Davies 2001:3 deals with the issues of date (and authorship) of the poems; he dates most of the epics of the Cycle not earlier than the second half of the sixth century; also Davies 1989:89–100, where he explores the linguistic evidence of the direct quotations of the poems—late or post-Homeric to a great extent—as evidence for their dating. West 2003:14 places the stabilization of the epics of the Cycle “after the completion of the Iliad”, which in turn is dated by the author “in the middle decades of the seventh century” (2003:12n56). In this paper he also explores the intricate connection in subject matter and structure between the Iliad and the Aethiopis. Griffin 1977:39n9 dates the composition of the epics in general in the late seventh century. In a sense, we need to stabilize the date of the composition of the Iliad 2 recovers, carries off and saves the body of the slain hero while Odysseus fights off the Trojans. This is an intriguing reversal of what happens in book 17 of the Iliad in the struggle over the corpse of Patroclus, which is a scene mirroring the scene evoked in Aethiopis. This reversal could have been coincidental, insignificant or merely a narratological choice. However, it proves to be a very significant deviation from the Homeric scene. In the Ilias Parva by Lesches8 we are told of the crucial moment in Ajax’s heroic career, which is the Judgment of Arms, the debate between Ajax and Odysseus over the arms of Achilles. In Proclus’ Chrestomatheia we learn that Lesches stated the following: a. according to Athena’s will (κατὰ βούλησιν Ἀθηνᾶς) the arms of Achilles are granted to Odysseus b. Ajax becomes enraged (ἐμμανής) and attacks the flocks of the Greek army, and c. he kills himself. We have no idea how Homer would have dealt with the Judgment of Arms; he gives us only the famous scene in the Nekyia where the soul of Ajax walks away from the apologetic Odysseus without uttering a word to him. There, in book 11 of the Odyssey, we learn that the Judgment was decided by the Trojans and Pallas Athena (παῖδες δὲ Τρώων δίκασαν καὶ Παλλὰς Ἀθήνη, 11.547). We learn nothing more. What was exactly the “judgment” of the Trojans? Who were these Trojans? Men or women? Was it a fair judgment? Was it a fair trial? The two relevant works of the Epic Cycle (Aethiopis and Ilias Parva) provide some sparse information about the story. First, the Scholiast on the above passage of the Odyssey (11.547) reports that Agamemnon, unwilling to decide between the two rival heroes, asks some Trojan prisoners which of the two did them most harm. This version of the story might have been included in the Aethiopis.9 The version of the Ilias Parva comes from the Scholiast on Aristophanes’ Knights (verse 1056), who reports that the Achaeans, following the suggestion of Nestor, sent spies to the walls of Troy to eavesdrop on the enemy. There, two maidens (parthenoi) debate the matter: one suggesting Ajax, who retrieved the body of Achilles as the braver (Αἴας μὲν γὰρ ἄειρε καὶ ἔκφερε δηϊοτῆτος / ἥρω Πηλεΐδην, οὐδ’ ἤθελε δῖος Ὀδυσσεύς, F2A Davies); the other, guided by Athena, challenges this as a lie (πῶς ἐπεφωνήσω; πῶς οὐ κατὰ κόσμον ἔειπες / ψεῦδος; F2A Davies). The decisive argument concerning this version is provided by verse 1056 of Aristophanes’ Knights (on which the Scholiast is commenting) which states that even a woman can carry a burden, if ordained by a man, but she would not fight (καί κε γυνὴ φέροι ἄχθος, ἐπεί κεν ἀνὴρ ἀναθείη· / ἀλλ’ οὐκ ἂν μαχέσαιτο, Knights 1056–1057).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Alexander the Great and Hephaestion
    2019-3337-AJHIS-HIS 1 Alexander the Great and Hephaestion: 2 Censorship and Bisexual Erasure in Post-Macedonian 3 Society 4 5 6 Same-sex relations were common in ancient Greece and having both male and female 7 physical relationships was a cultural norm. However, Alexander the Great is almost 8 always portrayed in modern depictions as heterosexual, and the disappearance of his 9 life-partner Hephaestion is all but complete in ancient literature. Five full primary 10 source biographies of Alexander have survived from antiquity, making it possible to 11 observe the way scholars, popular writers and filmmakers from the Victorian era 12 forward have interpreted this evidence. This research borrows an approach from 13 gender studies, using the phenomenon of bisexual erasure to contribute a new 14 understanding for missing information regarding the relationship between Alexander 15 and his life-partner Hephaestion. In Greek and Macedonian society, pederasty was the 16 norm, and boys and men did not have relations with others of the same age because 17 there was almost always a financial and power difference. Hephaestion was taller and 18 more handsome than Alexander, so it might have appeared that he held the power in 19 their relationship. The hypothesis put forward here suggests that writers have erased 20 the sexual partnership between Alexander and Hephaestion because their relationship 21 did not fit the norm of acceptable pederasty as practiced in Greek and Macedonian 22 culture or was no longer socially acceptable in the Roman contexts of the ancient 23 historians. Ancient biographers may have conducted censorship to conceal any 24 implication of femininity or submissiveness in this relationship.
    [Show full text]
  • Summaries of the Trojan Cycle Search the GML Advanced
    Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Summaries of the Trojan Cycle Search the GML advanced Sections in this Page Introduction Trojan Cycle: Cypria Iliad (Synopsis) Aethiopis Little Iliad Sack of Ilium Returns Odyssey (Synopsis) Telegony Other works on the Trojan War Bibliography Introduction and Definition of terms The so called Epic Cycle is sometimes referred to with the term Epic Fragments since just fragments is all that remain of them. Some of these fragments contain details about the Theban wars (the war of the SEVEN and that of the EPIGONI), others about the prowesses of Heracles 1 and Theseus, others about the origin of the gods, and still others about events related to the Trojan War. The latter, called Trojan Cycle, narrate events that occurred before the war (Cypria), during the war (Aethiopis, Little Iliad, and Sack of Ilium ), and after the war (Returns, and Telegony). The term epic (derived from Greek épos = word, song) is generally applied to narrative poems which describe the deeds of heroes in war, an astounding process of mutual destruction that periodically and frequently affects mankind. This kind of poetry was composed in early times, being chanted by minstrels during the 'Dark Ages'—before 800 BC—and later written down during the Archaic period— from c. 700 BC). Greek Epic is the earliest surviving form of Greek (and therefore "Western") literature, and precedes lyric poetry, elegy, drama, history, philosophy, mythography, etc.
    [Show full text]
  • Beauty on Display Plato and the Concept of the Kalon
    BEAUTY ON DISPLAY PLATO AND THE CONCEPT OF THE KALON JONATHAN FINE Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Jonathan Fine All rights reserved ABSTRACT BEAUTY ON DISPLAY: PLATO AND THE CONCEPT OF THE KALON JONATHAN FINE A central concept for Plato is the kalon – often translated as the beautiful, fine, admirable, or noble. This dissertation shows that only by prioritizing dimensions of beauty in the concept can we understand the nature, use, and insights of the kalon in Plato. The concept of the kalon organizes aspirations to appear and be admired as beautiful for one’s virtue. We may consider beauty superficial and concern for it vain – but what if it were also indispensable to living well? By analyzing how Plato uses the concept of the kalon to contest cultural practices of shame and honour regulated by ideals of beauty, we come to see not only the tensions within the concept but also how attractions to beauty steer, but can subvert, our attempts to live well. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ii 1 Coordinating the Kalon: A Critical Introduction 1 1 The Kalon and the Dominant Approach 2 2 A Conceptual Problem 10 3 Overview 24 2 Beauty, Shame, and the Appearance of Virtue 29 1 Our Ancient Contemporaries 29 2 The Cultural Imagination 34 3 Spirit and the Social Dimension of the Kalon 55 4 Before the Eyes of Others 82 3 Glory, Grief, and the Problem of Achilles 100 1 A Tragic Worldview 103 2 The Heroic Ideal 110 3 Disgracing Achilles 125 4 Putting Poikilia in its Place 135 1 Some Ambivalences 135 2 The Aesthetics of Poikilia 138 3 The Taste of Democracy 148 4 Lovers of Sights and Sounds 173 5 The Possibility of Wonder 182 5 The Guise of the Beautiful 188 1 A Psychological Distinction 190 2 From Disinterested Admiration to Agency 202 3 The Opacity of Love 212 4 Looking Good? 218 Bibliography 234 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “To do philosophy is to explore one’s own temperament,” Iris Murdoch suggested at the outset of “Of ‘God’ and ‘Good’”.
    [Show full text]
  • Sophocles' Philoctetes Roisman, Hanna M Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1997; 38, 2; Proquest Pg
    The appropriation of a son: Sophocles' Philoctetes Roisman, Hanna M Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Summer 1997; 38, 2; ProQuest pg. 127 The Appropriation of a Son: Sophocles' Philoctetes Hanna M. Roisman ANHOOD in archaic and classical Greece-as in modern times-is generally manifested not so much in relation­ M ships with women as in relationships with other men, especially in the relationship between father and son. The Greek male is expected to produce sons who will continue his oikos (e.g. Soph. Ant. 641-45; Eur. Ale. 62lf, 654-57). Further, as Hesiod makes clear, sons should resemble their fathers in both looks and conduct, especially the latter (Op. 182,235; ef Ii. 6.476-81; Theophr. Char. 5.5). Such resemblance earns the father public esteem and proves his manliness; the lack of it may be cause for disparagement and calls his manliness into question. 1 We learn from Ajax and Philoctetes that Sophocles follows the Hesiodic imperative that sons should resemble their fathers in their natures and their accomplishments. Ajax sees himself as an unworthy son, having lost Achilles' arms to Odysseus, and prefers to commit suicide rather than face his father, Telamon, who took part in Heracles' expedition to Troy and got Hesione, the best part of the booty, as a reward (Aj. 430-40,462-65, 470ff, 1300-303; Diod. 4.32.5). At the same time, he expects his son, Eurysaces, to be like himself in nature, valor, and in everything else ('ttl.~' aA.A.' OIlOlO~, Aj. 545-51). Sophocles' Philoctetes, on the other hand, presents the strug­ gle between Odysseus and Philoctetes for the 'paternity' of Neoptolemus, as each tries to mold the young man in his own 1 Even in contemporary Greece the intense male rivalry for proving oneself takes place among men alone, while women and flocks serve as the object of this rivalry.
    [Show full text]
  • Middle Comedy: Not Only Mythology and Food
    Acta Ant. Hung. 56, 2016, 421–433 DOI: 10.1556/068.2016.56.4.2 VIRGINIA MASTELLARI MIDDLE COMEDY: NOT ONLY MYTHOLOGY AND FOOD View metadata, citation and similar papersTHE at core.ac.ukPOLITICAL AND CONTEMPORARY DIMENSION brought to you by CORE provided by Repository of the Academy's Library Summary: The disappearance of the political and contemporary dimension in the production after Aris- tophanes is a false belief that has been shared for a long time, together with the assumption that Middle Comedy – the transitional period between archaia and nea – was only about mythological burlesque and food. The misleading idea has surely risen because of the main source of the comic fragments: Athenaeus, The Learned Banqueters. However, the contemporary and political aspect emerges again in the 4th c. BC in the creations of a small group of dramatists, among whom Timocles, Mnesimachus and Heniochus stand out (significantly, most of them are concentrated in the time of the Macedonian expansion). Firstly Timocles, in whose fragments the personal mockery, the onomasti komodein, is still present and sharp, often against contemporary political leaders (cf. frr. 17, 19, 27 K.–A.). Then, Mnesimachus (Φίλιππος, frr. 7–10 K.–A.) and Heniochus (fr. 5 K.–A.), who show an anti- and a pro-Macedonian attitude, respec- tively. The present paper analyses the use of the political and contemporary element in Middle Comedy and the main differences between the poets named and Aristophanes, trying to sketch the evolution of the genre, the points of contact and the new tendencies. Key words: Middle Comedy, Politics, Onomasti komodein For many years, what is known as the “food fallacy”1 has been widespread among scholars of Comedy.
    [Show full text]
  • Illinoisclassica171992relihan.Pdf
    Rethinking the History of the Literary Symposium JOEL C. RELIHAN and the Members of Greek Seminar 420 In the Spring of 1992 it was my pleasure and privilege to direct at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign a Greek seminar called "Plato and Later Symposiac Literature." Four Greek texts were read in common: Plato's Symposium, Xenophon's Symposium, Plutarch's Banquet of the Seven Wise Men and Lucian's Symposium or The Lapiths; each member of the seminar was then responsible for the production of a study of a different text within the genre. These latter texts were assigned as follows: Joseph Leichter to Petronius' Cena Trimalchionis, Stephen Trzaskoma to Plutarch's Table Talk, Eleanor Hardin to Athenaeus' Deipnosophists, A.JL. Dollmetsh Worley to Methodius' Banquet of the Ten Virgins, John Houlihan to the Emperor Julian's Symposium or Saturnalia (popularly Caesars) and Jennifer MacDonald to Macrobius' Saturnalia; I concerned myself with the Cena Cypriani and related late classical texts. Timothy Johnson, who has just finished a dissertation on Horace's symposiac poetry, was unable to attend the seminar, but agreed to help us in our revisions with his knowledge of sympotic lyric and Homer. We present here the conclusions that we have reached about the definition of the genre, Plato's place within its history, and the relation of later texts to earlier models; it is, as it were, a potential introduction to a volume. Collected Ancient Symposia, that has not yet found its B. P. Reardon. My students have allowed me the general supervision and construction of this essay, along with the free use of the pronoun "I" and reference to my forthcoming book, Ancient Menippean Satire; I lean on their expertise not only for the specific authors which were their particular concern but also for their general hterary acumen.
    [Show full text]
  • SOPHOCLES' AJAX, a Translation by Dennis Daly
    Wilderness House Literary Review 6/4 Dennis Daly SOPHOCLES’ AJAX ©2012 Dennis Daly Introduction Sophocles lived during the golden age of ancient Greece. He was born around 496 BC in Colonus, just outside of Athens, and died 90 years later. He probably came from a wealthy merchant family and lived what many would think of as a near perfect life. So the dry facts seem to say. At sixteen years of age Sophocles led the paean, celebrating a decisive Greek victory over the Persians at Salamis. This was more than just an everyday honor. You needed the physique, athleticism, a stage presence and the ability to sing. Sophocles held numerous civic positions of high honor including treasurer, gen- eral (he served with the legendary Pericles), priest, and commissioner. His friends included the great historian Herodotus. Of all of Sophocles’ 123 plays only seven survive. They are Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus, Electra, Women of Trachis, Philoctetes, and Ajax. Sophocles wrote his plays specifically as entries for the Dionysia festivals held annually in Athens. Playwrights usually entered four plays at a time into these competitions. The so-called Theban plays of Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonus, were never entered together, but were each entered with another set of plays. Early on Sophocles bested his older rival Aeschylus and never looked back winning many more competitions than either Aeschylus or his young- er rival, Euripides. The power of these tragedies and their subject matter belie the official biogra- phy of Sophocles. The dramatist simply understood shame, degradation, alien- ation, despair and madness a little too well.
    [Show full text]
  • Athenaeus' Reading of the Aulos Revolution ( Deipnosophistae 14.616E–617F)
    The Journal of Hellenic Studies http://journals.cambridge.org/JHS Additional services for The Journal of Hellenic Studies: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here New music and its myths: Athenaeus' reading of the Aulos revolution ( Deipnosophistae 14.616e–617f) Pauline A. Leven The Journal of Hellenic Studies / Volume 130 / November 2010, pp 35 - 48 DOI: 10.1017/S0075426910000030, Published online: 19 November 2010 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0075426910000030 How to cite this article: Pauline A. Leven (2010). New music and its myths: Athenaeus' reading of the Aulos revolution ( Deipnosophistae 14.616e– 617f). The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 130, pp 35-48 doi:10.1017/S0075426910000030 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/JHS, IP address: 147.91.1.45 on 23 Sep 2013 Journal of Hellenic Studies 130 (2010) 35−47 DOI: 10.1017/S0075426910000030 NEW MUSIC AND ITS MYTHS: ATHENAEUS’ READING OF THE AULOS REVOLUTION (DEIPNOSOPHISTAE 14.616E−617F) PAULINE A. LEVEN Yale University* Abstract: Scholarship on the late fifth-century BC New Music Revolution has mostly relied on the evidence provided by Athenaeus, the pseudo-Plutarch De musica and a few other late sources. To this date, however, very little has been done to understand Athenaeus’ own role in shaping our understanding of the musical culture of that period. This article argues that the historical context provided by Athenaeus in the section of the Deipnosophistae that cites passages of Melanippides, Telestes and Pratinas on the mythology of the aulos (14.616e−617f) is not a credible reflection of the contemporary aesthetics and strategies of the authors and their works.
    [Show full text]
  • Focusing on the 'Margins' of Sophocles' Ajax
    Focusing on the “Margins” of Sophocles’ Ajax and Philoctetes Associate Professor Christy Stanlake United States Naval Academy Adjusting Our Lenses: When we read the classic plays of 5th Century B.C. Athens, we have to shift our contemporary notions of what a play is and how theatre functioned in Attica. We notice that the structure of these plays is different. There are choral odes in which a group of characters sing and dance in unison (kind of like today’s musical theatre numbers) and episodes in which the central characters speak or sing to one another, to the chorus, to the gods, and to the audience. The odes are broken into strophes, “turning,” and antistrophes, “turning back,” that rhythmically mirror one another. The parallel structure allowed for viewers to understand the agon, the “struggle” or “contest,” between opposing views through three physical senses: sight (as the chorus danced one direction and then literally turned the opposite direction); sound (the equally balanced measures of music that supported each view); and touch (the rhythm the dancers’ feet made as they stepped in rhythm with the odes’ poetry. [Incidentally, the way we describe lines of poetry as being comprised of “feet” comes from the Greek tradition of literally stomping out the odes’ rhythm upon the ground with one’s feet.] Aristotle’s Poetics (335 B.C.), the first work of theatrical criticism, sought to describe the substance and nature of theatre. His thesis that classical tragedy was intended to influence catharsis, a purging of emotions such as pity and fear, forever shaped how people view western drama.
    [Show full text]
  • Certamen Homeri Et Hesiodi: Introduction, Critical Edition and Commentary
    Durham E-Theses Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: Introduction, Critical Edition and Commentary BASSINO, PAOLA How to cite: BASSINO, PAOLA (2013) Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: Introduction, Critical Edition and Commentary, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/8448/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: Introduction, Critical Edition and Commentary Paola Bassino Ustinov College This thesis is submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics and Ancient History University of Durham 2013 Abstract Paola Bassino Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi: Introduction, Critical Edition and Commentary. This dissertation provides an up-to-date introduction to the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi, a critical edition of the text, and the first commentary in English on it. The Certamen is an anonymous work composed around the second century AD.
    [Show full text]
  • The Recovery of Helen
    THE RECOVERYOF HELEN JrT is my purposehere to examineaspects of the iconographyof the Recoveryof Helen on the night that Troy fell. The attempt seems the more worth while now that a canonical pattern of interpretation is likely to be established by Kunze's short but authoritative study and by the detailed, well-illustrated treatment in the recent book by Mme. Lilly B. Ghali-Kahil.1 The main episodes of the Recovery, established by the end of -the sixth century B.C., are credited to the Cyclic Epic poets Arktinos and Lesches, the lyricists Ibykos and his older contemporary Stesichoros. The first three alone are concerned with the iconography of the Recovery as it appears during the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.2 The earliest extant reference to an episode of the Recovery is found at Andro- mache 627-631, Euripides' play staged about 425 B.C.3 The old lord Peleus speaks, insulting Menelaos: EAXW&E Tpotav.. OvKOKKravEg EKT,E 7VcvKLyvvatKa XEtptav~'~ XacW,8AaBV, aAAX,g eTet&Eg pacrrov, EK/ctXOv ti'oo 4n I E8E!, IT/ O8OTlV atKaAXOVKva, 71rTOIV -7TE4VK&J KVmpt8og, d' KaaKUtrTE 01. When you took Troy, you failed to put your wife to death, though you had her in your power- on the contrary, when you looked at her breast, you threw away your sword and accepted her kiss, caressing the traitorous bitch, you miserable wretch, born slave to lust. E. Kunze, Archaische Schildbander (Olympische Forschungen, II, 1950), pp. 163-167; Lilly B. Ghali-Kahil, Les enlevements et le retour d'Helene, Paris, 1955, particularly pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Aristarchus and the Epic Cycle
    Aristarchus and the Epic Cycle This presentation centers on the concept of the epic Cycle as understood by Aristarchus of Samothrace, who was director of the Library of Alexandra in the mid third century BCE. The work of Aristarchus survives only indirectly, through the reportage of various ancient sources preserved mostly in scholia or notes found in ancient papyrus fragments and in medieval codices. I focus here on the scholia that reflect the hupomnēmata or commentaries of Aristarchus on the textual transmission of the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey. When Aristarchus evaluates Homeric textual variants in his hupomnēmata, he tries to determine, in each case, which of the variants are original to Homer and which of the variants stem from poets whom he considers to be neōteroi ‘the newer ones’. For Aristarchus, these ‘newer ones’ included the poets of the epic Cycle. Here I begin to apply the results of an important work that focuses on the use of the term neōteroi by Aristarchus: Severyns, A. 1928. Le cycle épique dans l’école d’Aristarque. Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liége 40. Paris. As Severyns demonstrates, the use of this term neōteroi in the Homeric scholia, especially in the scholia for the tenth century codex Venetus A, reflects the usage of Aristarchus himself, not only of the Aristarcheans who came after him—or of the scholiasts who report on the opinions of the Aristarcheans, as in the Venetus A.1 In using this term neōteroi, meaning ‘newer’ or ‘neoteric’, Aristarchus had in mind poets whom he judged to be ‘newer’ than Homer.
    [Show full text]